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52
This delay was due to the effects of the railway strike.
Tenders were invited, but all were excessively high, and it
was necessary to postpone building operations until prices of
materials had dropped.
Later, fresh tenders were invited, and the tender of
£4,179 for the 22 cottages was accepted, being £190 per
house, exclusive of legal and other expenses.
These cottages will now shortly be ready for occupation,
and will be let at a rental of 7s. per week.
The accommodation is slightly larger than is provided in
the Mays Lane cottages.
About five acres of the Estate not needed for immediate
development is let off for allotments, there being 31
allotment holders, who are chiefly tenants of the Council's
cottages.
The Council's total investments to date are: Land,
£2,500; 30 cottages, Mays Lane, £5,810; and 22 cottages,
Totteridge Lane, £4,700; making a total of £13,010.
A deficit of over £100 accrued before the Mays Lane
cottages were occupied, but this has been reduced in the
18 months during which the property has been occupied to
£26 2s. 5d. This would have been still further reduced but
for the fact that the repayment of principal and interest on
the whole 14 acres has been charged to these cottages, which
therefore are bearing the whole burden of the estate.
It is intended as soon as the Totteridge Lane cottages
are completed to erect a number of small flats for old couples,
to be increased in number if the demand exists.
There is a demand for cottages at about 5s. 6d. per
week, and a good number of these will be erected in conjunction
with the flats.
It is proposed that the accommodation to be provided in
these classes of dwellings shall be—(a) In old couples' flats:
one good living-room, and bedroom, with similar kitchener,
sink and copper as in the other houses, but without the bath.
(b) In the small cottages: a good kitchen, with scullery, and
two bedrooms. As the utmost accommodation possible for
the money will be provided in these cottages, I am afraid the
bath will have to be left out in this type of cottage, as it
could be provided only by the reduction in the size of rooms,
and in this instance I believe good-sized rooms to be of most
value to the tenants.